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HOW  TO  PRESERVE  FELLOWSHIP  AND 
RIGHT  UNDERSTANDING  BETWEEN 
JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 


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By 


Robert  E.  Speer 


Copies  obtainable  at 
Room  15,  1305  Arch  Street 
and 

Room  25,  304  Arch  Street 


1917 


How  to  Preserve  Fellowship  and  ‘Right 
Understanding  Between  Japan  and 
the  United  States 

By  Robert  E.  Speer 

OR  more  than  half  a century  there  was  nothing 
but  good-will  and  friendship  between  Japan 
and  the  United  States.  But  for  ten  years 
there  has  been  growing  up  in  each  land  a 
small  body  of  men  who  have  felt  and  fomented 
distrust  and  there  have  been  times  when  these 
men  were  able  to  communicate  their  distrust 
so  that  larger  sections  of  the  press  and  many  of  the  people 
began  to  fear  that  the  two  nations  might  even  drift  into 
war  against  all  their  best  interests  and  true  desires.  And 
there  are  some  who  still  fear  that  this  may  happen.  How 
can  it  be  prevented?  And  how  can  we  preserve  fellowship 
and  right  understanding  between  the  United  States  and 
japan? 

I . By  resolutely  determining  both  in  Japan  and  in  the 
United  States  that  we  will  preserve  it  and  that  we  will 
keep  our  heads  and  not  be  intimidated  or  coerced  by  any 
circumstances.  There  are  some  who  declare  that  destiny 
will  bring  on  a conflict  between  the  two  nations.  This  was 
what  Mr.  Mann  asserted  in  Congress: — 

“ I have  no  doubt  that  a conflict  will  come  between  the 
Far  East  and  the  Far  West  across  the  Pacific  Ocean.  All 
which  is  taking  place  in  the  world,  the  logic  of  the  history 
of  the  human  race  up  to  now,  teaches  us  that  the  avoidance 
of  this  conflict  is  impossible.  I hope  it  will  be  only  a com- 

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mercial  conflict.  I hope  war  may  not  come,  that  there 
will  be  no  conflict  of  arms,  but  I have  little  faith  that  in 
this  world  of  ours,  people  and  races  are  able  to  meet  in 
competition  for  a long  period  without  armed  conflict.  A 
fight  for  commercial  supremacy  leads  in  the  end  to  a fight 
with  arms,  because  that  is  the  final  arbiter  between 
nations.  ” 

Destiny  will  set  us  at  each  other’s  throats!  But  what 
is  destiny?  I s it  the  God  of  peace  who  made  us  one  blood  and 
one  family  to  live  as  brothers  on  the  earth?  Is  it  our  own 
wills?  Well,  why  do  we  need  to  surrender  to  our  own 
deeds?  Why  not  will  that  we  will  not  drift  into  the  mad- 
ness of  hate  and  war?  We  do  not  need  to  be  slaves  to  our 
own  stupidity.  We  can  will  to  be  rational  and  to  deal 
justly  and  to  preserve  friendship.  The  Japanese  also  can 
do  this.  We  can  tell  each  other  and  all  the  marplots  and 
weak-wills  who  think  that  men  can’t  restrain  their  injus- 
tice, that  we  mean  to  have  peace. 

2.  By  believing  good  about  each  other  and  not  evil. 
We  can  begin  by  believing  that  the  honest  and  earnest 
people  of  each  land  want  only  peace  and  friendship,  and 
by  saying  both  in  Japan  and  in  the  United  States  that  we 
believe  this.  Judge  Elbert  H.  Gary,  who  was  in  Japan  in 
the  autumn  of  1916  was  a true  messenger  there  and  is  a 
true  messenger  here.  Reporting  his  trip  at  St.  Louis  in 
October  he  said: 

“ I said  repeatedly  (in  Japan),  on  my  own  responsibility, 
making  no  claim  except  that  I believe  I could  accurately 
represent  public  sentiment,  that  a large  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  did  not  desire,  but  would  deplore 
and  stubbornly  oppose,  war  with  Japan,  except  in  self- 
defense,  and  that  they  were  of  the  opinion  there  is  not  now 
nor  will  be  any  cause  for  serious  trouble  or  disagreement; 
that  there  need  be  no  conflict  of  opinion  which  could  not 
be  finally  and  satisfactorily  settled  by  mutual  negotiation 
and  consideration.  I also  expressed  the  belief  that  our 

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Governmental  Administration  is  and  would  be  inclined 
toward  this  most  desirable  exercise  of  authority.  To  all 
this  I am  sure  this  large  company  of  representative  busi- 
ness men  will  heartily  subscribe.  I would  repeat  and  em- 
phasize the  sentiments  thus  expressed. 

“And  now,  gentlemen,  I am  here  to  say  to  you  in  words 
just  as  emphatic  and  in  a belief  no  less  absolute  that  the 
leading  and  controlling  men  of  Japan  are  equally  anxious 
to  have  a continuance,  permanently,  of  the  peaceable  and 
friendly  relations  now  existing  between  these  two  countries. 
That  there  may  be  exceptions  may  go  without  saying;  it 
would  be  usual,  and  need  excite  no  surprise  nor  fear  if  such 
is  the  fact.  Still,  I have  no  positive  information  on  which 
to  base  this  conjecture.  I had  good  opportunity  to  ascer- 
tain the  real  situation,  though  my  visit  to  Japan  was  com- 
paratively short. 

“The  most  prominent  and  influential  men  in  Japan  are 
outspoken  in  their  profession  of  friendship  toward  the 
United  States.” 

This  is  the  way  all  responsible  men  would  talk  about 
our  relations  to  Japan. 

3.  By  acting  justly  in  each  land  toward  citizens  of 
the  other,  the  Japanese  treating  Americans  justly  in  Japan 
and  Americans  treating  Japanese  justly  in  America.  At 
the  present  the  latter  half  of  this  prescription  is  our  pre- 
scription. All  we  need  to  do  is  to  do  right.  And  we  need 
to  do  right  for  our  own  sake.  It  will  profit  us  nothing  to 
try  to  benefit  ourselves  by  wrong-doing.  It  cannot  be 
done.  What  is  right  is  a question  to  be  considered  calmly 
and  without  prejudice,  but  the  problem  of  the  rights  of 
Japanese  in  California  to  own  property,  their  right  to  acquire 
citizenship,  their  right  of  justly  regulated  admission  to  the 
United  States,  is  a problem  to  be  considered  without  racial 
prejudice  or  bigotry  and  on  the  basis  of  moral  and  economic 
justice  to  both  Japanese  and  Americans. 

4.  By  judging  each  other  as  we  ourselves  are  willing 

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to  be  judged.  The  trouble  is  that  countless  people  apply 
one  standard  to  themselves  and  to  their  own  actions  and 
another  standard  to  the  Orient.  Conduct  which  we  justify 
or  excuse  in  a Western  nation  we  reprehend  in  an  Eastern. 
But  there  are  not  two  moral  laws,  one  east  and  the  other 
west  of  Suez.  We  cannot  escape  the  duty  of  judging 
national  conduct,  but  Japanese  and  American  conduct 
should  be  judged  by  the  same  laws  and  whatever  allowances 
we  expect  for  ourselves  we  should  concede  for  others. 

5.  By  each  crediting  the  best  in  the  other.  We  are 
accustomed  to  live  up  to  other  people’s  expectation  of  us. 
If  they  believe  the  highest  of  us  we  are  uplifted  to  justify 
their  judgment.  If  they  think  meanly  of  us  we  can  too 
easily  drop  down  to  the  level  of  their  estimate.  We  in 
America  can  believe  the  best  about  Japan  and  see  in  and 
for  Japan  her  own  noblest  possibilities.  That  is  the  best 
way  to  help  Japan  to  be  her  best  self  and  to  realize  what  by 
the  grace  of  God  she  can  become.  And  Japan  can  help  us 
by  believing  the  best  about  us  in  spite  of  all  the  worst  that 
obtrudes  itself. 

4.  By  doing  right  each  of  us  toward  our  neighbors, 
we  toward  Mexico,  and  Japan  toward  China.  Any  sinuous 
or  insincere  or  selfish  activity  by  either  nation  is  injurious 
to  good-will  and  right  understanding.  If  Japan  or  we  are 
not  ingenuous  and  generous  and  fair  toward  the  nations 
nearest  to  us,  each  of  us  will  suspect  that  the  other  may 
have  the  same  disposition  secretly,  America  toward  Japan, 
and  Japan  toward  America. 

7.  By  carrying  out  the  recommendation  of  the  gather- 
ing of  friends  of  Japan  and  China  which  met  in  New  York 
on  September  26,  1916,  and  which  voted  to  ask  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  “to  recommend  to  Congress  the 
creation  of  a non-partisan  commission  of  net  less  than  five 
members  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  study  the  entire  problem 
of  relations  of  America  with  Japan  and  with  China,  and 
further  to  recommend  to  Congress  that  it  invite  the  govern- 

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ment  of  China  and  the  government  of  Japan  each  to  ap- 
point a similar  commission,”  the  American  Commission 
to  meet  the  Commissions  of  China  and  Japan  in  their 
respective  countries. 

8.  Lastly,  in  the  United  States  we  can  help  by  show- 
ing kindness  and  courtesy  to  all  Japanese  visiting  or  living 
in  America  and  by  multiplying  the  number  of  Christian 
men  and  v/omen  who  go  out  to  live  in  Japan  to  commend 
Christianity  to  the  Japanese  as  a religion  which  proclaims 
a God  and  Father  of  us  all  and  which  can  make  all  nations 
one. 


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: , • r".  '/U* 


